A midsummer fortnight's dream

On the old board, which I visited a while back, the winner's husband's name was listed.

They're playing the ladies' singles final at Wimbledon today, and when the match is over they will crown the eighth different woman champion in as many years. Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, the 2022 trophy winner, was defeated in the semi-finals by Barbora Krejcikova of Czechia on Thursday. In the other semi-final, Jasmine Paolini of Italy ground out a three-setter that felt like five, over Donna Vekic of Croatia. Neither Paolini nor Krejcikova has ever been close to the finals at Wimbledon.

I didn't think Rybakina was going to lose. She'd been playing great tennis for weeks, but the feisty Krejcikova, who had won both their previous meetings, made it three out of three. The 31 seed upended the 4 seed. Rybakina was dominating for a set and a half, but then she drifted into a strange funk that wound up sending her home.

I must confess, I missed that match, because I was too worn out from watching the preceding marathon between Vekic (unseeded) and Paolini (seeded 7). It was riveting, as I knew it would be. It ended with a match tiebreaker, and the drama was as high as it gets, all afternoon long.  In the end, the Italian spark plug beat out her opponent by the slightest possible margin. 

Vekic was visibly tired, this being her fifth three-set match in a row at Wimbledon, and her forearm was hurt, too. She was so exhausted in the last set that she was crying while she was playing. And from the moment she set foot on the court she wore a pained expression that said she couldn't wait for the match to be over. But she never quit, despite the apparent torture.

Paolini, meanwhile, came out nervous, but she gradually settled down as her high-energy game kicked in. Like the Spanish man-child, Carlos Alcaraz, Paolini clearly enjoys playing, even in these high-pressure settings. She cracks a smile now and then. She doesn't take herself too seriously. She didn't do amything spectacular, but she hung in there long enough to advance.

Paolini was a finalist on the clay court of this year's French Open in both singles and doubles, and here she is again just a few weeks later in the singles final on the lawn at the All England Club. Will she get past Krejcikova, who won the French singles title three years ago? I'd say no, but if you've been following my recent predictons about tennis, you know they're not worth much.

That said, in the men's singles, I, like everyone else, knew all along who the finalists would be: Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic of Serbia. It's a rematch of last year, when Alcaraz won. To get to this year's final, Alcaraz beat Daniil Medvedev of Russia in a semi- that wasn't as close as I thought it might be. The Djoker then pulverized the Italian Lorenzo Musetti in straight sets.

The men's showdown, tomorrow, should be quite a spectacle, but first things first. The women's final is intriguing. The only other time the two finalists have played each other was in the qualifiers in Australia in 2018. Krejcikova won easily. The bookies say she will win again. I wouldn't be so sure.